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BY 



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NEW YORK 



Clark ife Maynard, Publishers, 



734 Broadway. 



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ENGLISH CLASSICS, 



An Elegy 

IN 

A OOUITTRY ChUEOHTAED 

ODES 



Pleasure arising from Vicissitude, and a Distant 
Prospect op Eton College. 



BY 

THOMAS GRAY. 

WITH PREFATORY AND EXPLANATORY NOTES. 



NEW YORK: 

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English Classics, 

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CLASSES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE, READING, GRAMMAR, ETC. 

Edited bt Eminent English and Amekican Scholars, 
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1 Byron»« Prophecy of Dante, (Cantos 
I and II.. _ 

5 Milton's L'Allejpro and 11 Penseroso. 
ft Lord Bacon's £ s s a y s ^ Civil and 

Moral. (Selected.) 
4 Bjron'8 Prisoner of Chlllon, 

6 Moore's Fire Worshippers. (LRlla 

Bookh. Selected from parts I. and II.) 

6 Ooldsndth's Deserted Village, 

7 Scott's Marmiout ( feelectiona from 

Canto VI) . ., 

8 Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel. 

(Introduction and Cant 1.) 

9 Burns' Cotter's Saturday Xiffht.and 

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11 Campbell's Plea su res of Hope. 

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grlm's Progress. , ^ , 

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densed ) 
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84 Macaulay's W arren Hastings. (Con- 
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Goldsmith's Vicar of W akefleld. 

(Condensed ~) 
Tennyson's The Two Voices and a 

Dream «f Fair A\ omen. 
S? Memory Quotations. 

88 Cavalier Poets. 

89 Dryden's Alexander's Feast and 
MacFleeknoe. 

Keats' The Eve of St. Agnes. 



88 



84 

25 

26 

2? 

28 
29 
80 
81 



8& 
86 



40 



41 Irving's Legend ofSleepy Hollow. 



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LIFE OF GEAT. 



The life of our poet is the common life of a poet and a scholar. 
Tliere is little to record in it except days of sensitive and studious 
retirement. 

Like many other eminent men, Thomas Gray was indebted for 
his advancement to the early care and interest of his mother. 
His father, Philip Gray, was, like the father of Milton, an ex- 
change broker, and a man of fierce and unrestrained temper. 
His wife was forced to leave him; but by her own exertions, and 
those of her sister, Thomas was sent to Eton School, where two 
of his uncles were under-masters. From Eton he went to Cam- 
bridge, and from thence he started on a tour throughout France 
and Italy, as companion to young Horace Walpole, the son of the 
then Prime Minister of England. The natures of the fellow- 
travelers were too unlike to allow them to continue long to- 
gether, and they were soon obliged to part. Walpole confessed 
that the fault was his. "I had just broke loose from College," 
he writes, "with as much money as I could spend, and I was 
willing to indulge myself. Gray was for antiquities, whilst I 
was for perpetual balls antl plays. The fault icas mine." 

Gray returned to Pembroke College, Cambridge, where, with 
the exception of visits to Scotland, Cumberland, and Wales, he 
spent his whole life. He was offered the honorable distinction of 
Poet-Laureate, which, however, he declined. He was afterwards 
chosen Professor of Modern History at Cambridge. He wrote 
very few poems, but those are of the most scholarly and refined 
character. The "Elegy" is that upon which his fame will chiefly 
rest. 

Three places claim the honor of being the scene of this beauti- 
ful poem, viz., Granchester and Madingley, near Cambridge — two 
lovely villages whose churchyards are within hearing of the 
curfew of St. Mary's Church — and Stoke, near Windsor, which is 
probably the locality the poet had in view. In that churchyard 
he lies TDuried beside the beloved mother whose epitaph he wrote, 
as the only one of her children ''icho had had the misfortune to 
survive her. " 

His chief poems are, "On a Distant View of Eton College," 
"The Bard," "A Hymn to Adversity," "Ode on the Pleasures 
arising from Vicissitude," and the far-famed "Elegy." 

He was born December 26th, 1716, and died July 24th, 1771, 
»nd is said to be, after Milton, the most learned English poet. 



ELEGY 

m A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD. 



The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, 
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea, 

The plowman homeward plods his weary way 
And leaves the world to darkness and to me. 

Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, 
And all the air a solemn stillness holds, 



Line 1. Curfew.— A bell rung in England during Norman 
times, at eight o'clock in the evening, to warn the people to put out 
fires and lights, and go to bed. It was supposed to have been first 
used at Carfax Church, in Oxford, by order of King Alfred the 
Great. It need not necessarily be considered as a hard law upon 
the (conquered Saxons alone, as it bore equally heavy upon the 
Norman nobles. Perhaps it was intended as a precaution against 
the accidents of fire; many of the poorer houses at this time being 
made of wood. In 1087 there was a very great fire in London, and 
St. Paul's was burnt. 

Parting. — Departing. This poem is therefore supposed to 
be written in the evening, when the labor of the day is over. 

2. Lea. — Grass- land; meadow that lies untilled. 

3. Plods. — Moves onward slowly, as if tired. 

4. The world. — The whole scene before me. 

5. Landscape.— The /o/v?i or shape of a portion of land as it 
appears to the eye. 



6 ELEGY IK A COUITTRY CHURCHYARD. 

Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, 
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds ; 

Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower 

The moping owl does to the moon complain 10 

Of such as, wandering near her secret bower, 
Molest her ancient solitary reign. 

Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade. 
Where heaves the turf o'er many a mold'ring heap, 

Each in his narrow cell forever laid, 15 

The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep. 

The breezy call of incense-breathing morn, 

The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed, 

7. Droning. — Giving a dull, buzzing sound. 

8. And drowsy tinklings, etc. — This line may be explained 
thus — "The bell that is tied round the neck of one of the sheep 
in a flock — called the ' beU-wc\hev' — that by its sound the flock 
may be kept together, gets gradually silent as the wearer begins 
to drop off to sleep." 

Lull. — To sing to, as a nurse to a child. To quiet, to com- 
pose. Lullahii is a song to sing children to sleep. 

9. Save. — Except. 
Yonder; line 101. 

10. Moping. — Dull, gloomy; like one stupid or bewitched (ow^ 
like). The moon is always supposed, in poetry, to be the owl's 
midnight companion. 

13. Rugged. — Rough; of unequal surface. Literally (from the 
Latin) wrinkled. 

That yew-tree's shade. Supply beneath. 

14. Where heaves the turf, etc. — "Where the mounds of turf 
show that there the decaying bodies of the buried lie." 

16. Rude. — Rough, unpolished, country-bred. Without any 
bad sense. 

Hamlet. — A little home, a village, a cluster of houses. In 
the same way we have circlet, a little circle; hrooklet, a little 
brook or stream. 

17. — " The fresh perfumed breezes of the morning air awaking 
them." 



ELEGY IN A COUNTKY CHURCHYARD. 7 

The cock's slirill clarion, or the echoing horn, 20 

No more shall rouse them from their lowlj bed. 
For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn, 

Or busy housewife ply her evening care ; 
No children run to lisp their sire's return, 

Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share. 
Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, 25 

Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke ; 

19. Clarion. — A narrow-tubed, shrill -sounding trumpet. 

Echoing horn. — The horn of the hunter in the early morn- 
ing sport. (Our hunters do not start so early as tliose appeared 
to do.) There are many allusions in the poets to these two morn- 
ing sounds, e.g., 

*' While the cock with lively din 
Scatters the rear of darkness thin, 

Oft listening how the hounds and horn 
Cheerily rouse the slumbering morn, 
From the side of some hoar hill. 
Thro' the high wood echoing shrill.'" 

Milton, L Allegro. 
Also — "Thro' the dell his horn resounds. 

Round and round the sounds were cast, 
Till echo seemed an answering blast." 

Scott, Lady of the Lake. 
23. Ply.— To be busy with. An old poet uses the word in this 
sense : 

'* They ply their feet, and still the restless ball, 
Tost to and fro, is urged by them all." 
Her evening care. — Her household arrangements, in order 
to be ready to receive her husband on his return from his daily 
labor. 

23. Lisp. — To speak indistinctly, as a child. 

Sire. — Connected with the every-day word sir. Derived 
from the French, and meaning master, and hi^nce father. 

25. Oft did .... to their sickle yield.— ' Many a year had 
they reaped the ripe grain." 

26. Furrow.— A trench or cut made in the earth by the plow- 
share. 

Qlebe. — The hard surface of the soil. Olebe-land is a mea- 
dow or other laud belonging to a parsonage. 



8 ELEGY IH A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD. 

How jocund did they drive their team a-field ! 

How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke f 

Let not Ambition mock their useful toil, 

Their homely joys and destiny obscure ; 30 

Kor Grandeur hear, with a disdainful smile. 
The short and simple annals of the poor.* 

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, 
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave. 



27. Jocund; an adjective, here used as an adverb. Pleasantly, 
blithely, cheerily; from the Latin word for joke or jest. 

Team. — Two or more horses or other beasts of burden har- 
nessed together. 

A-field. — Towards the field. Compare aback, aside, etc. 

28. How bowed, etc. — "What good and strong wood-cutters 
they were !" 

29. Let not . . . obscure; i.e., "Let not those who wish to rise 
to great places in the world despise those who have not the same 
desire, but are content with the simple happiness of a quiet life." 

30. Destiny. — That state of life to which God hath called us. 

31. Nor Grandeur, etc. — " Neither let grand people smile with 
contempt when stories are told of the sufferings or joys of the 
poor." 

32. Annals. — A story of a life or of a period ; strictly speaking, 
where every event is narrated in the yea?' in wliich it happened. 

33. Heraldry — The art of drawing, or, as it is called, emblazon- 
ing coats of arms which we see on the panels of carriages or else- 
where. When any man did some great thing, or was allowed 
certain privileges, he got a herald to emblazon him a coat of arms 
in some way connected with his life, or deeds, or position, and 
this he was authorized to use. And when he married a wife who 
had a coat of arms, they were joined together, or " quartered," as 
it is called; so that two illustrious people coming together had a 
grander coat of arms, and could "boast" more of their "her- 
aldry." 

Pomp of power. — Display and magnificence of the rich. 



* A very popular little book, called Leigh Richmond's " Annals 
of the Poor," was published many years ago, and can still be had 



ELEGY IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD. 9 

Await alike the inevitable hour : — 35 

The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 

Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault, 
If Memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise. 

Where, through the long-drawn aisle and fretted 
vault. 
The pealing anthem swells the note of praise. 40 

Can storied urn or animated bust 

Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? 

Can Honor's voice provoke the silent dust. 

Or Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death ? 



35. : — By this mark the poet sums up all: " However glori- 
ous life may be to inauy men, they and the poor must both die. 
Death makes them at last equal." 

Inevitable. — Certain, that cannot be avoided. 

37. Impute (verb, imper, mood). — Charge it to them; simply, 
blame them. 

38. Memory, personifying the friends left behind them. 
Trophy. — A memorial of an enemy who has turned in flight; 

a pillar or monument made of the arms of the slain, to celebrate 
the victor}'. Used here simply as a monument to the dead. 

39. Aisle (from a Latin word signifying icing). — The wing or 
side of a church. 

Fret, in architecture, is an ornament consisting of threads 
or lines crossing one another at right angles. Fretted vault is a 
varlt tiius ornamented. 

41. Storied urn. — Urn is a vessel wider at the middle than at 
the mouth. It was used for water, and to hold the ashes of the 
dead in the days and countries when dead bodies were burned 
instead of being buried. A storied urn w^ould therefore mean 
such a receptacle inscribed with the story of the dead person's 
life and good deeds. 

Animated. — Life-like. 

Bust. — A representation in marble of the head and shoul- 
ders of the dead person as he lived. 
43. Provoke. — Call forth ; used in a good sense. 

Lines 43, 44 may be expressed thus: — "Can the voice 
which calls to honor and renown summon to its service those 



10 ELEGY IN^ A COUNTRY CHURCHYABD. 

Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid 45 

Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire ; 

Hands that the rod of empire might have swajed, 
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre. 

But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page, 

Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll : 60 

who are silent in the grave? Can the words of flattery please and 
soothe those whose ears are now cold and deaf in deatli?" 

45. Neglected spot. — This quiet, unfrequented churchyard. 

46. Pregnant. — Full of, and longing to impart it, to be free 
from it. 

Celestial fire. — The divine spirit of poetry, which was sup- 
posed to be a gift from Heaven. So the poet Milton submits him- 
self to the influence of this power when he calls upon it to sing 
for him at the beginning of his great poem. Sinking himself, he 
says : — 

"Sing, heavenly Muse, that on the secret top 
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire 
That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed. 
In the beginning how the heavens and earth 
Rose out of Chaos." 

47. Rod of empire. — The king's scepter. The scepter was 
originally a rod or staff upon which any one could lean; thence 
it became the staff or rod which kings bore as the symbol of 
power and sovereignty. 

Sway. — To .turn to one side or the other, to give a prepon- 
derance or influence to anyone person. To "sway the rod of 
empire," therefore, may be used of any one who has power to 
govern as he will by waving the scepter. 

48. Ecstasy.— A degree of delight which arrests and occupies 
the whole mind: which strikes one silent with enjoyment. 

Lyre. — A kind of harp-much used by the ancients to accom- 
pany the singing or recitation of poetry. "The living lyre" — 
one whose tones seemed to be those of living voices. 

49. Knowledge. — The personification of all the results of study 
and learning in the world. 

Their. — The antecedent to the word is to be found as far 
back as line 16, viz., in the words "rude forefathers." 
Ample. — Large, wide, full, copious. 

50. Rich with the spoils of time.— Enriched by the ideas, 
thoughts, and suggestions of scholars of all times. Spoils — things 
stripped from an enemy; here used in a friendly sense. 

Unroll. — Ancient books were written, not on pages made 



ELEGY IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD. 11 

Chill Peirniy repressed their noble rage, 
And froze the genial current of their soul. 

Full many a gem of purest ray serene 

The dark unf atliorned caves of ocean bear ; 

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, 55 

And waste its sweetness on the desert air. 

Some village-Hampden, who with dauntless bi-east 
The little tyrant of his fields withstood. 



to " turn over" like ours, but on long pieces of paper or parch- 
ment, which were rolled on two rollers, and as the pages were 
read, the left hand roller shut the page to the left by being moved 
over it, while the other roller, being moved to the right, opened 
up the next page. 

51. Penury (probabl}^ from a Greek word signifying to toil for 
daily bread). — Necessity of toiling, poverty. 

Repress. — Check, curb, put under restraint. 

Rage. — This word is used commonly for anger, passion, 
etc. ; but it has a higher meaning in the sense of enthusiasm (i.e.| 
an ardor of mind directed to some object), great eagerness directed 
to the attainment of some end. 

52. Genial. — Gay, festive, cheerful. The idea is that of some 
sparkling brook checked and stopped by the frost. 

Current of their soul. — The temper and disposition natural 
to them. 

53. Eull. — Quite, very many. 

54. Unfathomed. — Unsounded, the deep^bed of ocean which 
has never been measured. This stanza is one of the most popular 
and most frequently quoted in the English language. 

57. Hampden (John), lived in the reign of Charles I.; was 
cousin to Oliver Cromwell, and sat in the Long Parliament for 
Buckinghamshire. On the breaking out of the war he became 
a colonel, and was mortally wounded in a skirmish at Chalgrove, 
near Oxford, June 18, 1643. He died six da}^s after. He and 
several others withstood a tax, called the " tax of ship money," 
which the king levied, and were brought to law. 

Dauntless.— Bold, fearless. 
Breast. — Heart, 

58. The little, etc.; i.e., "The humble man who lay buried 
here, might have been of as bold a spirit as Hampden, and might, 



12 ELEGY I]^ A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD. 

Some mute inglorious Milton, here may rest — 

Some Cromwell, guiltless of his country's blood. 60 

Th' applause of listening senates to command, 
The threats of pain and ruin to despise. 

To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land, 

And read their history in a nation's eyes. 

Their lot forbade : nor circumscribed alone 65 

Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined ; 

Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne, 
And shut the gates of mercy on mankind ; 



in his small way, have withstood oppression as fearlessly as he 
did." 

59. Mute inglorious Milton; i.e., "some one who possessed 
the poetic power of Milton, but was obliged from his circum- 
stances to go down to his grave silent and without fame." 

60. Some Oromwell. — Some one who, with all Cromwell's 
power and desire to stir up civil war, from his humble position 
had no opportunity of doing so; and so died innocent of public 
crime. 

61. Applause. — Praise and approbation exi>vessed hy dappiiig 
of hands. 

Senate ; from the Latin word signifying an old man. 
Hence denoting an assembly of elders, whose a^e is supposed to 
give wisdom to their counsels. It is hence used to mean any 
administrative assembly, such as (with us) the Houses of Parlia- 
ment. 
65. Lot. — Their position in life determined by Providence. 

Forbade. — Denied them the privileges described in lines 
61-64. 

Circumscribe. — To draw lines round anything, to limit, to 
confine. Paraphrase: They had not only the misfortune of being 
unknown for their virtues; but they were fortunate enough to 
have no opportunity of giving way to the evil part of their na- 
ture. They had no chance of rising to power through violent and 
pitiless treatment of their fellow-men at (lines 69-72) the sacrifice 
of truth, and saying and doing (to flatter and deceive) that which 
they knew to be wrong. 



ELEGY IN^ A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD. 13 

The struggling pangs of conscious truth to liide, 
To quench the bhishes of ingenuous shamCj 70 

Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride 
With incense kindled at the Muse's flame. 

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, 
Their sober wishes never learned to stray ; 

Along the cool sequestered vale of life 75 

They kept the noiseless tenor of their way. 

Yet even these bones from insult to protect, 
Some frail memorial still erected nigh, 



69. Conscious truth. — What they kneic— in spite of what they 
said — to be true. 

70. Ingenuous shame. — Frank, candid shame, which caused 
them to blush for what they were obliged to hide. 

71. Luxury and Pride; i.e., the luxurious and proud, who ex- 
pected to be fed with flattery by poets and those who would sell 
their genius to so unworthy a purpose. 

73. Madding. — Maddening, violent, disturbing, distracting. 
The same thought is beautifully expressed by an old poet: 
"What sweet delight a quiet life affords. 
And what it is to be from bondage free! 
Fa)' from t/ie madding worldling's Jioarse discords^ 
Sweet flowery place, I first did learn of thee." 
Ignoble. — Mean, base; from ig, " not," and nobilis, " noble;" 
we have also ignorant, not knowing ; e'^nominious, without a 
name, dishonorable. 

75. Sequestered. — Separate, set apart, lonely, private, secluded. 

76. Tenor (from the Latin word signifying " to hold").— The 
holding on, the continued course. Dryden, the poet, has some 
lines which may explain this phrase — 

"All of a tenor wns their after life. 
No day discolored with domestic strife, 
No jealousy, but mutual truth believed, 
Secure repose, and kindness undeceived." 

77. These, etc. — " The bones of the very humblest have some 
memorial to mark their resting-place, and keep the feet of the 
crowds that pass by from walking over their graves; and although 
it may display awkward and ungraceful inscriptions and rude 



14 ELEGY IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD. 

With uncontli rhymes and shapeless sculpture decked, 
Implores the passing tribute of a sigh. 80 

Their name, their years, spelt by the unlettered Muse, 

The place of fame and elegy supply ; 
And many a holy text around she strews, 

That teach the rustic moralist to die. 

For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey, 85 

This pleasing, anxious being e'er resigned. 

Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, 
'Nor cast one longing, ling'ring look behind? 



ornaments, still it serves to draw a sigh of regret from those who 
read the names of the dead." 

79. Uncouth. — Unknown, strange, foreign to our customs, there- 
fore awkward, boorish. 

80. Tribute.— Something given or bestowed. 

81. Their names; whose names? See lines 13-15. 
Unlettered Muse. — Some untaught and unlearned author 

who composed a tombstone inscription more from the warm feel- 
ings of his heart than from the talent of his head. 

Muse. — There were nine goddesses in ancient times who 
were supposed to preside over music, poetry, painting, rhetoric, 
astronomy, etc. The one mentioned here" was the goddess of 
Poetry. 
Milton in his poem of Lycidas has a passage like this: 
" So may some gentis Muse 
With lucky w^ords favor my destined urn!" 

82. Elegy. — An address of praise of the dead. 

83. She; i.e., the unlettered Muse. 

84. Moralist. — One who tries to learn and fix a lesson from the 
events and trials of life. 

85. Prey. — (1) Property seized in war; (2) anything carried off 
to be devoured. A man is said to be a prep to'his own thoughts 
when he is eaten up or constantly occupied by them. 

86. " Give up a life full of pleasures as well as anxieties." 

87. Precinct ; an enclosed space, anything giri about. The 
houses of the Canons of Canterbury Cathedral, enclosed by the 
walls, are called " The Precincts." 

88. Behind, viz., to whom, and what he was leaving. 



ELEGY im A COUNTRY CHUKCHYARD. 15 

On some fond breast tlie parting soul relies, 

Some pious drops the closing eye requires ; 90 

E'en from the tomb the voice of nature cries ; 
E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires. 

For thee, who, mindful of tli' unhonored dead, 
Dost in these lines their artless tale relate. 

If chance, by lonely Contemplation led, 95 

Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate, 

Haply some hoary-headed swain may say, 
" Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn, 

Brushing with hasty steps the dews away, 

To meet the sun upon the upland lawn. 100 

89. Parting. — Departing. See line 1. 

90. Pious. — Loviui?, full of natural affection. A pious man is 
one who loves his fathe?', and fears to offend bim. 

89, 90. "It is sweet to the dying to lean, in their weakness, 
on the breast of one whom tliey have loved and trusted in life; 
and to see the tears of weeping friends around their bed." 

91. 92. An old poet has the same thought : — 

"My very ashes in their urn 
Shall, like a hollowed lamp, forever burn." 

93. For thee. — As for thee. Such and such will be the descrip- 
tion given. See the next four stanzas. 

Thee. — The poet himself, who was here recalling the vir- 
tues of those who had lived and died obscurely. 

94. Artless. — Simple, without guile, or fraud. 

95. Chance. — Perchance, by chance. • 

9G. Kindred spirit.— Some one of the same habits of thought- 
ful and solitary meditation. 

97. Haply. — By accident, perhaps. From hap, signifying 
chance or lot; not necessarily bad chance or bad luck. From this 
word we have happy, ha}-)p)en, hap-hazard. In Ruth iii. 3, the 
word occurs: — "And she went, and came, and gleaned in the 
field after the reapers; and her Imp w^as to light on a part of the 
field belonging unto Boaz." Here certainly the word is used for 
good luck. 

Swain. — A Saxon word meaning a servant, more especially 
a herdsman; hence it is used for a peasant of any kind. 



16 ELEGY IJq^ A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD. 

" There at the foot of yonder nodding beech, 
That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high, 

His listless length at noontide would he stretch, 
And pore upon the brook that babbles by. 

^' Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn, 105 
Mutt' ring his wayward fancies, he would rove ; 



101. Yonder; i.e., gone and therefore at a distance. Always 
used about tilings at a distance, but within 'vietc. 

"Near yonder copse, where once the garden smiled." 
"Beside you straggling fence that skirts the way." 

Ooldsmith. 

102. Fantastic. — (1) Fanciful, not real ; (2) whimsical, odd. 
Here referring to the odd way in which the roots spread them- 
selves. 

103. Listless. — Heedless, indifferent, without desire. Prom 
the word lud, which was not originally used in a bad sense, but 
meant simply choice or desire. The old poet Chaucer makes one 
of his characters say, in beginning to tell a story : — 

"And then our host began his horse arrest (stop). 
And said, Lords, hearken, if you list." 
Shakespeare in one of his plays, " As You Like It," act ii., sc. 1, 
draws the picture of a meditative character like this, and de- 
scribed him in words almost similar: — 

" He lay along 
Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out 
Upon the brook that brawls along this wood." 

104. Pore.— To look with steady gaze. Students are said to 
pore over their books. 

Babbles. — Utters unmeaning sounds. Tennyson's Brook 
" Babbles on the pebbles." 

105. Hard by.— Close to. 

Smiling as in scorn; i.e., like one who lived alone, and 
had begun not to think the best of the world and his fellow-men; 
a misanthrope. 

106. Wayward fancies. — The termination icard is the impera- 
tive of an Anglo-Saxon verl) signifying to look at, to direct the 
new to. Hence wayward will mean looking direct to Ms own way, 
i.e., fro ward, peevish, perverse. See 1. 3. 



ELEGY IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD. 17 

]S"ow drooping, woful, wan, like one forlorn, 
Or crazed with care, or crossed in hopeless love. 

" One morn I missed him from the customed hill. 
Along the heath, and near his fav'rite tree. 110 

Another came ; nor yet beside the rill. 
Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he. 

'' The next, with dirges due, in sad array, 

Slow through the churchway path we saw him 
borne, — 

Approach and read, for thou canst read, the lay 115 
Graved on the stone beneath yon aged thorn. 

107. Wan (the past participle of tlie old verb to wane, to dimin- 
ish, to fall away). — Faint, languid, tired. We speak of the " wane 
of the moon," tlie waning intluence of a statesman or of a friend- 
ship. Dry den makes one of his characters say, — 

" I am waning in his favor, yet I love him." 
Forlorn. — Utterly lost or forsaken. Lorn is the past par- 
ticiple of the old verb. Dickens makes one of his most natural 
characters excuse herself for lier constant peevishness by saying 
that she is a "poor lone, lorn creature." 

108. Or . . . or. — A poetical expression for either . . . or. 
Crazed. — Crushed, impaired in intellect, broken. Com- 
pare crazy. 

Crossed. — Thwarted, opposed. Locke, a philosophical 
w' riter, says, ' ' To make a good and virtuous man, it is necessary 
that he Si.ould cross his appetites." 

109. Customed.— Accustomed; the hill where we used always 
to see him. 

110. Along, etc. Supply " I missed him." 

111. Another came; i.e., another morning. 
Rill. — A small running brook or rivulet. 

113, Next; i.e., next morning. 

Dirge. — A funeral service in Latin, beginning with "Diri- 
ge, Domine, nos," "Direct, or guide us, O Lord!" Dirges due 
will mean all the proper and solemn arrangements of a funeral. 

115. Lay. — The inscription. The word was used for a kind of 
narrative poem sung by the old minstrels, e.g., Sir W. Scott's 
" Lay of the Last Minstrel." 



18 ELEGY IN^ A COUNTRY CHURCHWARD. 

" There scattered oft, the earhest of the year, 
By hands unseen are showers of violets found ; 

The redbreast loves to build and warble there, 

And little footsteps lightly print the ground." 120 

The Epitaph. 

Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth, 
A youth, to Fortune and to Fame unknown : 

Fair Science frowned not on his humble birth, 
And Melancholy marked him for her own. 

Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere ; 125 

Heaven did a recompense as largely send : 

He gave to Misery (all he had) a tear, 

He gained from Heaven ('twas all he wished) a 
friend. 

No further seek his merits to disclose. 

Or draw his frailties from their dread abode, 130 
(There they alike in trembling hope repose,) 

The bosom of his Father and his God. 



117. The earliest; i.e., the earliest violets. 

Epitaph (from the Greek words signifying upon and a tomb). — 
That which is written upon a tombstone to the memory of the 
dead. Dr. Johnson says, "To define an epitaph is useless; every 
one knows it is an inscription on a tomb. An epitaph is indeed 
commonly panegyrical [i.e., containing praise], because we are 
seldom distinguished by a stone but by our friends." 

121. Lap of Earth. — To rest, like a child, on its mother's lap. 
Milton speaks of a weary traveler longing for a place to rest in 
his journey: 

" How he would gladly lay him down, 
As in his mother's lap." 

124. Melancholy. — A gloomy, depressed state of mind. 

125. Bounty. — Goodness, liberality. 

126. "Heaven was as kind to him as he to others. He had all 
he wanted, and gave all he could give (lines 127-129). 

130. Dread abode. — The grave, or forgetfulness. 

131. They alike; i.e., his merits and his frailties. 



AIT ODE 

ON THE 

PLEASURE ARISING FROM VICISSITUDE. 



ARGUMENT. 



The changes and chances of life afford pleasure as well as 
trial. The pleasures are here put in prominence. 



'Now the golden Morn aloft 

Waves her dew-bespangled wing, 
"With vermeil cheek and whisper soft 

She woos the tardj sj^ring ; 
Till April starts, and calls aronnd 5 

The sleeping fragrance from the ground ; 
And lio-htlv o'er the livino^ scene 
Scatters his freshest, tenderest green. 

!New-born flocks, in rustic dance, 

Frisking plj their feeble feet ; 10 

Forgetful of their wintry trance 
The birds his presence greet : 

1-8. The goddess of the morning, Aurora, rises over the hori- 
zon, with blushing beauty, and persuades the tardy Spring to 
burst forth in all its natural beauty. 

9-16. The young lambs, gamboling about the fields, try their 
newly-found powers of motion; the birds, roused from their win- 
try torpor and silence, answer joyfully to the call of April to 
resume their cheerful songs; especially the sky-larlv, who, sing- 



20 Al^ ODE ON" THE 

But cliief, tlie skj-lark warbles high 

His trembling, thrilling ecstasy ; 

And, lessening from the dazzled sight, 15 

Melts into air, and liquid light. 

Rise, my soul ! on wings of fire 

Rise the rap'trous choir among ; 
Hark ! 'tis E^ature strikes the lyre 

And leads the gen'ral song : 20 

[Warm let the lyric transport flow, 
Warm as the ray that bids it glow 
And animates the vernal grove 
With health, with harmony and love.] 

Yesterday the sullen year 25 

Saw the snowy whirlwind fly ; 
Mute was the music of the air, 
The herd stood drooping by : 
Their raptures now that wildly flow, 
'No yesterday, nor morrow know ; 30 

'Tis man alone tliat joy descries 
With forward and reverted eyes. 



ing, soars aloft, until he is lost to men's eyes and ears in the dis- 
tance of the blue sky, 

17-34. Let me, like all nature, awake, and join my voice and 
song to the thousand notes of harmony and love to the Creator 
wliich the appearance of Spring calls forth, 

25-32. But the other day, the snow fell thick and fast over the 
dark and dismal landscape; there was no sound of life or joyous- 
ness; the sheep and cattle stood cold and drooping. To-day they 
enjoy the present, unmindful of past discomfort, and heedless of 
what the future may bring. Man alone can look back with regret 
to past, or forward with anticipation to future, happiness. 



PLEASURE ARISING FROM VICISSITUDE. 21 

Smiles on past Misfortune's brow 

Soft Reflection's hand can trace ; 
And o'er the cheek of Sorrow throw 35 

A melancholy grace ; 
While Hope prolongs our happier hour, 
Or deepest shades, that dimly lower 
And blacken round our weary way, 
Gilds with a gleam of distant day. 40 

Still, where rosy Pleasure leads, 

See a kindred grief pursue ; 
Behind the steps that Misery treads 

Approaching Comfort view : 
The hues of bliss more brightly glow 45 

Chastised by sabler tints of woe ; 
And blended form, with artful strife, 
The strength and harmony of life. 

See the wretch that long has tost 

On the thorny bed of pain, 60 



33-40. When we calmly think of past misfortunes, we discovet 
that, after all, they contained many pleasures; and that our sor- 
rows were not all melancholy. On the other hand, if we are not 
liappy now, Hope leads us on to look for better days, and how- 
ever black and desponding our present life may appear, it shows 
us a brighter although a distant future. 

41-48. Pleasure is always followed by a grief in some way con- 
nected with it; and, on the other hand, trial and unhappiness is 
never unattended by some comfort and consolation. Our luippi- 
uess is all the brighter for being tinged with a darker shade of sor- 
row, and they two taken together, and skillfully counteracting 
each other, form a strong and harmonious character. 

47. Blended. — Joiuedliarmoniously together. 

47. Form. — 3rd pers. pi. present agreeing with "hues of bliss." 

49-56. See the unhappy man, who has long lain on the uneasy 
bed of pain and sickness! What a change comes over him when 
he regains health and strength! Th^ little flowers, the notes of 



22 AN ODE OK THE 

At length repair his vigor lost, 

And breathe, and walk again : 
The meanest flow'ret of tlie vale, 
The simplest note that swells the gale, 
The common sun, the air, the skies, 55 

To him are opening Paradise. 

Humble Quiet builds her cell 

jN^ear the source whence Pleasure flows ; 
She eyes the clear crystalline well, 

And tastes it as it goes. 60 

[While far below, the madding crowd 
Rush headlong to the dangerous flood,] 
Where broad and turbulent it sweeps, 
And perish in the boundless deeps. 



the birds, the sun that shines on him and thousands besides him. 

the fresh air, the bright sky, all speak of a new and higher state 

of existence. 
49, Wretch. — Any one in great misery and unhappiness; not 

necessarily bearing a bad meaning. Compare the well-known 

lines from Cowper, alluding to himself when a child; — 
"My mother! when I learned that thou wast dead, 
Say, wast thou conscious of the tears I shed? 
Hovered thy spirit o'er thy sorrowing son, 
Wretch even then, life's journey just begun?" 

57-64. Quiet is not afraid to live close to the source from which 
Pleasure springs, and fears not to look at and taste its clear crys- 
tal waters, as they first bubble forth; bi.t those who rush in ex- 
citement to drink of it in excess when it has become a strong and 
turbulent stream are carried by it to ruin. 

59. Eyes; verb. — Examines narrowly. 

Crystalline. — So pronounced by Milton. 

57-73. Indolence and Pride, living in a dull artificial atmos- 
phere of their own, fed and soothed by Flattery and Fawning, 
cannot understand the joys, however great, of those who live 
true, simple, and sober lives., 



PLEASURE ARTSIN-Q FROM VICISSITUDE. 23 

Mark where Indolence and Pride, 65 

[Soothed by Flattery's tinkling sound,] 
Go softly rolling, side by side, 
. Their dull, but daily, round : 
[To these, if Hebe's self should bring 
The purest cup from Pleasure's spring, 70 
Say, can they taste the flavor high 
Of sober, simple^ genuine Joy ? 

Mai'k Ambition's march sublime 

Up to Power's meridian height ; 
"While pale-eyed Envy sees him climb 75 

And sickens at the sight. 
Phantoms of Danger, Death, and Dread 
Float hourly round Ambition's head ; 
While Spleen, within his rival's breast. 
Sits brooding on her scorpion nest. 80 

Happier he, the peasant, far, 

From the pangs of passion free. 
That breathes the keen yet wholesome air 

Of rugged penury. 
He, when his morning task is done, 85 

Can slumber in the noontide sun ; 
And hie him home at evening's close 
To sweet repast, and cahn repose. 

69. Hebe.— The goddess of youth, and cup-bearer to the gods of 
the ancieafs. 

73-80. See how miserable the ambitious man is, in the midst of 
grand and successful aspirations! while those who envy, but can- 
not attain his success grow sick with jealousy and rage. The 
one, risking so much, is beset with constant fears of danger and 
death; the other, unable to follow him, is tormented and stung 
by envy and vexation, and broods over his fancied ill-fortune. 

81-88. This stanza requires no paraphrase. 



24 ODE ON THE PLEASURE ARISING FROM VICISSITUDE. 

He unconscious whence the bliss, 

Feels, and owns in carols rude, 90 

That all the circling joys are his. 

Of dear Vicissitude. 
From toil he wins his spirits light, 
From busy day the peaceful night. 
Rich, from the very want of wealth, 95 

In Heaven's best treasures. Peace and Health.] 



89-96. He. although unconscious of the cause, cheerfully feels 
and owns that the appointed changes of life, as they come 
round, bring him joy and happiness. Labor brings lightness of 
heart, an active day brings a peaceful and a sleepf ul night, and he 
is rich in the treasures which do not generally accompany worldly 
wealth — a tranquil mind and a healthy body. 

92. Vicissitude. — State clearly, in your own words, what you 
mean by this word; and describe what you understand to be the 
scope or object of this poem. 



ODE ON A 
DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON COLLEGE. 



Ye distant spires, ye antique towers, 

That crown the watery glade, 

Where grateful Science still adores 

Her Henry's holy shade ; 

And ye, that from the stately brow 6 

Of Windsor's heights the expanse below 

Of grove, of lawn, of mead survey. 

Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among 



2. That crown the watery glade. — Cf . The ' ' Progress of 
Poetry," ii. 3. 

"Isles that crown the ocean deep." 

4. Her Henry's holy shade. — Eton College was founded by 
Henry VI., a.d. 1441. The epithet alludes to the religious char- 
acter of the king. Cf. "The Bard,"ii. 3, "The meek usurper's 
holy head." Wordsworth also, in his Ode on King's College, 
Cambridge, calls him the " royal saint." 

5. The stately brow. — Cf. Thomson's " Summer," 1413. 

"Majestic Windsor lifts his stately brow." 
8. i.e., the turf of whose lawn, the shade of whose grove, the 
flowers of whose mead. Cf. "Hamlet," act iii. sc. 1. 

"The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword." 
Mead.— A meadow ; an open place where the grass is mown. 
Dutch, mosden, to mow. 



26 ODE ON" A DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON COLLEGE. 

Wanders the hoary Thames along 

His silver-winding way. 10 

Ah happy hills, ah pleasing shade, 
Ah fields beloved in vain, 
Wliere once my careless childhood strayed, 
A stranger yet to pain ! 

I feel the gales that from ye blow, 15 

A momentary bliss bestow. 
As waving fresh their gladsome wing. 
My weary soul they seem to soothe, 
And, redolent of joy and youth. 
To breathe a second spring. 20 



9. Hoary. — Alliidin": to the venerable and majestic character 
of the Thames as a river; or possibly (and perhaps, more probably) 
to the gray color of the water. 

10. Silver-winding. — Cf. Thomson's " Summer," 1417. 

"Then will we turn 
To where the silver Thames first rural grows." 
12. Beloved in vain. — This is supposed to be an allusion to the 
early death of Richard West, Gray's particular friend and fellow- 
student at Eton. West died in 1742, when Gray was twenty-six 
years old. 

14. Yet; i.e., as yet. 

17. Fresh.— Either for afresh, once again; or, used adverbially, 
freshli/. 

Gladsome. — Used in an active sense, that makes one glad. 
Cf. Pope's translation of the Odyssey:— 

"On chairs and beds, in order seated round, 
Tliey share the gladsome board; the roofs resound." 

19. Redolent.— Scented with, breathing an odor of. The air 
that blows from the playing-fields of Eton is full to the poet of 
the associations of his"^ happy childhood. Redolent, from Lat. 
redolens, redolere, to smell of. 

20. A second spring.— Cf. Cowper, On the receipt of my 
Mother's Picture : — 

" By contemplation's help, not sought in vain, 
I seem to have lived my childhood o'er again." 



ODE ON" A DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON COLLEGE. 27 

Say, Father Tliames, for tlioii hast seen 
Full many a sprightly race 
Disportino^ on thy margent green 
The paths of pleasure trace, 

Who foremost now delight to cleave 25 

With pliant arm thy glassy wave ? 
The captive linnet which inthrall ? 
What idle progeny succeed 
To chase the rolling circle's speed, 
Or urge the flying ball ? 30 

While some, on earnest business bent, 
Their murmuring labors ply 



22. Full many; i.e., very many. Cf, " The Elegy," 53. 

"Full many a gem of purest ray serene." 
Sprightly. — Lively, spirited. Spriglit, or sprite, is a con- 
traction of spirit. 

23. Disporting. — Playing about; now generally used as a reflec- 
tive verb, to disport one's self, etc. First said to be used as an 
intransitive verb by Spenser in his "Daphnaida":- 

" I caught her disporting on the greene." 
Margent. — Same as margiji, from. Lat. margo, brink or 
edge. Cf. Milton's " Comus," 232:— 

" By slow Meander's margent green." 

26. Pliant. — Supple, capable of being easily and quicklj' moved 
or bent about; from Fr. pUer, Lat, pUcfire, toxoid or bend. 

27. Inthrall. — Capture, take prisoner. A.S., thrall, a slave. 

29. i.e., trundle their hoops. 

30. i.e., play cricket. Cf. Pope's "Dunciad," iv. 592: 

"The senator at cricket urge the ball." 
It may here be observed that the sports of Eton boys have 
changed somewhat since Gray's time. To catch birds and'trundle 
hoops, would be amusements looked upon with great contempt 
by the modern Etonian. 

32. Murmuring labors; i.e., the boys murmuring over their 
lessons half aloud, to impress them on their memory. Ply, to 
work at anything liard; from the same root as pliant. 



28 ODF ON- A DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON COLLEGE. 

'Gainst graver hours, that bring constraint 
To sweeten liberty : 

Some bold adventurers disdain 35 

The limits of their little reign^ 
And unknown regions dare descry : 
Still as they run they look behind, 
They hear a voice in every wind, 
• They snatch a fearful joy. 40 

Gay Hope is theirs by Fancy fed, 
Less pleasing when possest ; 
The tear forgot as soon as shed, 
The sunshine of the breast : 
Their's buxom health of rosy hue, 45 

Wild wit, invention ever-new, 



33. 'Gainsti«- Against ; i.e., in preparation for. 
37. Descry. — To examine, investigate as a spy or scout. Cf. 
Milton's "Paradise Lost," vi. : — 

" Others from dawning hills 
Look'd round, and scouts each coast- light armed scoure, 
Each quarter to descrie the distant foe." 
40. A fearful joy.— Cf. St. Matthew's Gospel, xxviii. 8, "They 
returned with fear and great joy;" also Virgil's "^ueid," 1, 513; 
' ' Simul percussus Achate, 
Lsetitiaque metuque." 
i e., "Achates struck at the same time with joy and fear"; and 
"King Lear," act v. sc. 3: 

"But his flam'd heart, 
(Alack, too weak the conflict to support!) 
'Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief, 
Burst smilingly." 

44. Cf. Pope's "Eloisa to Abelard": — 

"Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind." 

45. Buxom. — Oiiginally boughsome ; easily bowed to one's will, 
pliant, so lively, and thin; jolly, vigorous. A.S., bugan, to bow, 
yield. 



ODE 0]^ A DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON COLLEGE. 29 

And lively clieer of vigor born ; 

The thoLiglitless day, the easy night, 

The spirits pure, the slumbers light, 

That fly the approach of morn. 60 

Alas ! regardless of their doom, 
The little victims play ! 
No sense have they of ills to come, 
Nor care beyond to-day : 

Yet see liow all around 'em wait 55 

The ministers of human fate, 
And black Misfortune's baleful train ! 
Ah, show them where in ambush stand 
To seize their prey the murderous band 1 
Ah, tell them they are men ! 60 

These shall the fury Passions tear, 
The vultures of the mind, 
Disdainful Anger, pallid Fear, 
And Shame that skulks behind ; 



49. Slumbers light.— Cf. Milton's "Paradise Lost," v. 3: — 
** When Adam wak'd, so custom'd, for his sleep 
Was aery-light, from pure digestion bred, 
And temperate vapors bland." 
Also Pope's "Imitation of Horace," Sat. ii. 2, 73: — 
" Remembers oft the schoolboy's simple faie. 
The temp'rate sleep, and spirits light as air." 

57. Baleful. — Destructive, causing bale. A.S., heal, misery. 

58. Ambush. — A place of concealment; old Fr., embusdie. Lat. 
boscus, a bush. 

61. Cf. Pope's "Essay on Man," iii. 167:— 

" The fury passions from that blood began." 
64. Skulks. — Lingers behind as though unwilling to be seen. 
Dan., skulke, to sneak. 



30 ODE OK A DISTANT PEOSPECT OF ETON" COLLEGE. 

Or pining Love shall waste their youth, 65 

Or Jealousy with rankling tooth, 

That inly gnaws tlie secret heart. 

And Envy wan, and faded Care, 

Grim-visaged comfortless Despair, 

And Sorrow's piercing dart. 70 

Ambition this shall tempt to rise, 
Then wliirl the wretch from high. 
To bitter Scorn a sacrifice, 
And grinning Infamy. 

The stings of Falsehood those shall try, T5 

And hard Unkindness' altered eye, 
That mocks the tear it forced to flow ; 
And keen Eemorse with blood defiled. 
And moody Madness laughing wild 
Amid severest woo. 80 



66. Cf. Spenser's "Fairy Queen," vi. 23:— 

•' But gnawing jealousy, out of this sight, 
Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bite." 

68. Wan. — Pale, without color. A.S., wann and won. — Pale, 
livid, sickly. Cf. Milton's " Sonnets," xiii. 6: — 

" With praise enough for Envy to look wan." 

69. Cf. " Richard III.," act i. sc. 1:— 

" Grim-visag'd war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front.'* 

Also the •' Comedy of Errors," act v. sc. 1: — 

" Grim and comfortless despair." 

72. Wretch.— The ill-fated, unhappy man. 

79. Cf. Dryden's " Palamon and Aicite," ii. 1192: 

" Madness laughing in his ireful mood." 



ODE OIT A DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON COLLEGE. 31 

Lo ! in tlie vale of years beneath 
A grisly troop are seen, 
The painful family of Death, 
More hideous than their Queen : 
This racks the joints, this fires the veins, 85 

That every laboring sinew strains, 
Those in the deeper vitals rage ; 
Lo! Poverty, to fill the band, 
That numbs the soul with icy hand. 
And slow-consuming Age. 90 

To each his sufferings : all are men 
Condemned alike to groan ;' 
The tender for another's pain, 
Th' unfeeling for his own. 

Yet, ah ! why should they know their fate, 95 
Since sorrow never comes too late, 



81. Cf. " Othello," act iii. sc. 3:— 

" For I am declia'd into the vale of years." 

82. Grisly. — Hideous, frightful. A.S., grislic; a grisan, to 
dread. 

83. Cf. Dryden's " State of Innocence," act v. sc. 1: — 

"With all the numerous famil}'^ of Death." 

84. This is said to be the only instance in English poetry where 
Death is represented as feminine. The Latin Mors is, however, 
of that gender. 

85. Racks. — Tortures, as if by stretching on the rack. 

86. Laboring. — Moving with pain and difficulty. 
95-100. Cf. Milton's "Comus":— 

" Be not over exquisite 
To cast the fashion of uncertain evils; 
For, grant they be so, while tliey rest unknown, 
What need a man forestall his date of grief, 
And run to meet what he would most avoid?" 
A Greek poet has the expression: 
" He lives the happiest life who thinks of (anticipates) nothing." 



3:^ ODE ON A DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON" COLLEGE. 

And liappiness too swiftly flies ? 

Thought would destroy their paradise. 

1^0 more ; — where ignorance is bliss, 

'Tis folly to be wise. 100 



99. Gray, perhaps, borrowed the lines from Prior's "Ode to 
the Hon. Charles Montagu": — 

" From ignorance our comfort flows, 
The only wretched are the wise," 
, Cf., too, Ecclesiastes i. 18: "He that increase th knowledge 
increaseth sorrow," 



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8 

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dense d ) 
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j>4 Mucauluy'a \\ arrea Uastinj^ (Con. 

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85 Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield. 

(Condensed ) 

86 Tennyson's The Two Voices and a 

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87 Memory Quotations. 
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89 Dryden's Alexander's Feast and 

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